Jim Travels The World

not going to bother apologizing for the absence of posts. you know, stuff happens. moved back to america, freaked out for a while about all the new-old stuff, settled in to work and the Colorado lifestyle. Couple months ago, took a weekender to South Dakota, covering Wind Cave National Park: (cave "boxwork") Custer State Park: (buffalo showing the cars who's boss) And Mount Rushmore: (Mount Rushmore made me feel this strange pride to be American and also felt angry that they defaced such a pretty mountain by carving the heads of some old dead white dudes in it) Rushmore was about what I expected: touristy; expensive parking; lots of foreigners with huge SLR cameras and fat americans eating ice cream. Go USA! Wish I had time for Badlands, but this was just a quick weekend getaway up north. I'd recommend a visit to the Black Hills and Custer for anyone; nice change of pace.

as i write this from beautiful Boulder, Colorado, I have to bid a farewell to Singapore, Thailand, and Beijing, as I've (obviously) returned home from my world travels. Still a bit jet-lagged, but glad to be home after not living in America for 13+ months. Goodbye also to Australia and New Zealand, it's been a crazy year. I'll be posting some new adventures from to time in a new America -only blog, and if I do any more world travelling (which I hope to do), adventures will back here. Stay tuned.

Siewyee, my coworker, Singaporean tour guide/ambassador, took us to Bugis  market last night, to fulfil my mission of trying the Durian (aka 'the stinky fruit'). Singaporeans call it 'the king of all fruits', a delicacy. All I knew was that the smell and taste are famous. You can smell a durian from 10 feet away. Siewyee offers some Durian already shucked: chris takes a bite: reaction 1: reaction 2: brian takes a bite: reaction (note chris is still gagging on the left side of the picture): jim takes a bite: reaction: and it's done. the taste is like... i can't describe it. foul. and it stays with you for a while. we immediately rushed to get some indonesian barbeque as soon as the tasting was complete

we had an office opening party a few days ago for our new Singapore office. At that time, I learned a bit more about the intricacies of the business card exchange (I had already heard some things) For this blog, I've enlisted the help of my coworkers Grace and Siewyee to dramatize the exchange. . Business cards are exchanged after the initial introductions. The text on the card should be facing the person who is receiving it . Business cards are exchanged using both hands. . Examine business cards carefully before putting them in a business card case. . Treat business cards with respect. Never slip it in your pocket after receiving it. It's an indicator of how you will value the relationship. . Your own business cards should be maintained in pristine condition. Never give someone a tattered card. And this is just the 'westernized' Singaporean custom. It's way more detailed in Japan, apparently.

singapore is such a drastic mix of the old and new. one block will be a poor neighborhood like chinatown , and then next is some wealthy touristy area like clark quay . last week i explored little india: like chinatown, but a different set of odors. i love what a melting pot singapore is. so many different races, languages, cultures. and like little italy or chinatown areas you'd find in american cities, i have found little clusters of caucasians in various places.

Since I'm only in Singapore a short time, my company has arranged some temporary housing for me, and my coworkers, until they find more permanent residence. Currently, we've just all moved into some spare rooms in a house in Holland Village . The house is owned by a local artist, Ketna Patel . Her house is also her studio , and this place is the craziest house I have ever seen: front porch. some giant bed/sandal/spiky clog shoe thing. brian coming up the stairs this is a $4000 chair. Ketna told us to sit anywhere, don't worry about the price tags. couch some more more crazy shit. don't even ask me. my favorite art piece (note the doornkob nipples. get it?) another giant shoe.

Day 2 Today, the John Grey sea canoe tour. Bus ride to Phang Nga ("Pong Naw") bay, boat ride out to the islands. Phang nga bay is a cluster of 160 small islands, most of them uninhabitable spires of rock. Our canoe guide takes us into caves to inside 3 of the little islands, to see the monkeys, crab, bats, and all kinds of fishes and little creatures.  Our guide Natt with a jellyfish. Apparently, unlike the Aussie jellys,  these guys won't kill you if you touch them. At night, we build Thai offering things made of banana leaves and candles. And set them into the ocean.  they pointed out that our offering were "bio-regrettable" so it was safe to launch them out to sea. Then we turn off all the lights, and dip our hands into the water to active the bio-luminescent plankton. So trippy, like turning the water into a lightshow that follows your hand. Back to hotel and sleep, early flight tomorrow. We had wanted to go to Bangkok,

Phuket 8am flight from Changi airport Singapore to Phuket, Thailand. Met lisa at the hotel. We walked down to the beach. Patong Bay The streets are filled with hawkers, up in our faces to buy DVDs, suits, anything. They kept asking us if we were Australian. I guess a lot of Aussies come here. A momentary quiet on the street. notice the telephone lines. We decide to take a tour of Phuket. Bus comes, and we go pick up one other couple, some kiwis. Our tour guidde, Son, is Thai. His English is hard to understand. He told us Thailand has no world cup team, but has the #1 elephant football team in the world. He pointed out that America doesn't even have an elephant football team. Touché, Son. It's really cool to be someplace that really cares about football (soccer) during World Cup. kids playing some soccer-hackey sack hybrid game with a wicker ball We go to old Phuket town, to a couple markets. Stray mangy dogs and ferrel cats everywhere. And the stree

and we're back. If you're just joining us ( possibly from my Australia blog  ) you might know that I've spent the last year living in and travelling around Australia and New Zealand. That time is coming to a close, and I'm spending June in Singapore and Thailand before heading back to the US and A. Arrived in Singapore Sunday night. it's hot here. like seriously hot. If your air conditioner broke down, it would be dire straits. When I got to Australia, it was a new and different experience for me. But it was nothing like this. This is like being in some sci-fi movie.Huge buildings, outdoor markets with aggressive hawkers, mingled in with two hundred year old hindu and buddhist temples. crazy. the "buddha tooth" temple is built from 402kg of gold Food is cheap (around $2-$3 per plate) and plentiful, but sometimes a bit hard to find something edible. I'll walk around, and it's like "well, this place has curried fish heads and octopus dum

so, packing up the apartment, getting ready to hand in the keys, saying goodbyes at work. it's been (a little more than) a year in Australia, and it's been the most eventful year of my life, for sure. make sure to check out my Things To Do In Australia list if you ever need to visit the red continent. We've blown a ton of money traveling around the country (and New Zealand), but it was all worth it. We had a lot of fun, met with some challenges (there's a lot we didn't know about moving to a new country) but all in all, one of the best experiences of my life. The next stop on this crazy train is Singapore. Use those little label buttons up at the top to view different places I've been, or go to my website to get an overview of everything I'm working on.

Day 6 Today was a less active day. We went to Hartley's crocodile adventure park about 25k south of Port douglas. It's a small zoo-like place with crocodiles, koalas, red kangas, wallabies, snakes, and cassowary, which is lke an emu. We got to see the deadliest snake in the world, the taipan. Also, massive spiders and crazy plants. Plus crocodiles feeding. An interesting experience. We saw some guys from some American tv show "crusty demons" shooting in the park. Day 7 Another sunrise at the beach, and we explored the beach a bit (4 mile beach). Packed up, headed north up captain cook highway. We stopped first at massman gorge, then we hit the Daintree area. We went on a rainforest walk through the trees along a boardwalk.  Hiking trails here are all on boardwalks, to protect the forest floor. It's funny how every place we visit has some placard indicating it has won some Queensland tourism award. Im sure its not just a marketing ploy... Then a couple beaches, lei

Day 5 Up early enough to catch the end of the sunrise on the beach 200m from our caravan park. Beautiful. Bus picked us up at 8, took us the the wharf for our snorkel tour.  Boat ride out the the reef was about 90 minutes, bumpy in the windy ocean. We first stop at a shallow section of the reef. Lycra wetsuits on, to protect from the jellies and the sun. Get in the water, right away I see a jelly.  He's easy to avoid though. Port Douglas is apparently the most dangerous place on earth. We swim around the reef for about an hour. The sights underwater are incredible: fishes, sea creatures on the reef.  found: nemo It's a bit hard for to enjoy it cuz I haven't snorkeled since I was 14, and i'm out of practice; I get a lot of ocean water in my nose and mouth. Throat hurts. back in the boat, a short ride to another section. This time it s a guided snorkel tour, with our marine biologist guide showing us various creatures from the reef. Then lunch, then one more boat ride to